


Wichita

by whichclothes



Series: Kansasverse [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-24
Updated: 2010-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 03:03:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/82334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whichclothes/pseuds/whichclothes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-series, ignoring comics. A chance meeting of old friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wichita

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[wichita](http://whichclothes.livejournal.com/tag/wichita), [xander/riley](http://whichclothes.livejournal.com/tag/xander/riley)  
  
---|---  
  
_ **Wichita (1/1)** _

**Title:** Wichita   
**Pairing:** Xander/Riley   
**Rating:** PG-13   
**Disclaimer:** I'm not Joss   
**Summary:** Post-series, ignoring comics. A chance meeting of old firends.   
**AN: **For [](http://community.livejournal.com/maleslashminis/profile)[**maleslashminis**](http://community.livejournal.com/maleslashminis/) . Written for [](http://jasonsnene.livejournal.com/profile)[**jasonsnene**](http://jasonsnene.livejournal.com/) , who wanted this:

Male character (ONE) they want paired with Xander: Riley   
Up to three things they want in their fic: angst, h/c, jealousy   
Up to two things they don't want: non-con, vamp!xan   
Preferred maximum rating:nc17

I hope you enjoy!

**Wichita**

 

Xander blinked up the bulky shape of the man who loomed over him and tried to get his sluggish brain to process a little better. It wasn’t easy—the Thman demon had given him a hell of a wallop on the head.

The man said, “Xander Harris? What the hell are you doing here?”

Now Xander looked down at his chest, which was beginning to feel like it was on fire. “Bleeding,” he answered.

The man held a hand out to him and Xander used it to haul himself to his shaky legs. He still had to look up to see the guy’s face, but…yeah. “Riley Finn,” he said.

Riley cocked his head. “What happened to your eye, Xander?”

Xander laughed a little hysterically. “Sunnydale happened.”

“But what are you—“

Riley was probably going to ask more questions, but the world tilted as Xander’s legs gave out, then his head hit the pavement and everything went black.

 

***

 

He didn’t know where he was when he first woke up and that was bad, waking up someplace you didn’t remember going to was nearly always bad. But then he saw the familiar face hovering over him. A few lines there now, the eyes a little more weary, but the earnestness was still there, and the farm-boy good looks. “Riley,” he said and tried to sit up.

“Hey, man, maybe you better take it easy. You took a pretty good knock to the noggin.”

When a wave of nausea washed through Xander, he decided that was good advice and he lay back down. “Where is this?” he asked, biting back the queasiness and looking around a little. He seemed to be in a bedroom, but it was very sparely furnished.

“My place. I hope it’s okay I brought you back here. They tend to ask a lot of nosy questions at the ER, you know, and I’m a fairly good hand with first aid.”

Xander looked down at himself, and realized only then that he was liberally swathed in bandages. And that, under the blankets that covered him to his waist, he was naked. He blushed. “Uh, thanks,” he mumbled. “Hospital avoidance is of the good. Besides, I’m tired of making up stories for my insurance company.”

Riley nodded, his too-long hair flopping a little into his eyes. “So you want to tell me what the hell you were doing fighting demons in Wichita?”

Xander struggled again to sit upright. The nausea had receded a little and the pain wasn’t as bad as he expected. Riley fluffed up a pillow and stuffed it behind Xander’s back. “Thanks. You make a good nurse. And I didn’t really intend to fight demons. I’ve been here a couple weeks, working on this job—construction. You know that new office building downtown? That’s me. But demons just…they just sort of find me. Is there a big demon problem here? Is that why you’re stationed here?”

A quick look of distress crossed Riley’s face. “I’m not stationed here, Xander. I just live here.” Then he laughed a little. “I sell cars. Wanna buy a Ford?”

“No more GI Joe? What happened?”

Riley shrugged and looked down at his lap. “The military and I had a slight difference of opinion over a few things. I still keep my hand in now and then, beating up the bad guys. Luckily for you, or that Thman would have got you.”

“Yeah. And thanks for that. It’s hard to fight with a big blind spot and shitty depth perception.”

They both sat on the bed then, silent and a little awkward, until Riley cleared his throat. “Um…are you still in touch with Buffy?”

Xander was seized with a ridiculous and completely insane twinge of jealousy, but he thought he hid it pretty well. “Now and then. She’s in Europe, doing Slayery stuff, I guess.” And, because he couldn’t help himself, he added a little meanly, “She’s married, you know.”

Riley didn’t flinch. “Oh. That’s nice.”

“To Angel.”

That did make Riley blink. “She married a subter—a vampire?”

“He’s not anymore. There was some sort of hocus-pocus thing. A reward for good behavior, I guess.” Riley made a face that matched Xander’s, both clearly agreeing in their opinions about Angel. In fact, although Xander didn’t say so now, Angel was one of the major reasons Xander and Buffy had gone their separate ways. It turned out that human Angel wasn’t much different from demon Angel—arrogant, bossy, and broody—except that human Angel worried more about hair loss and love handles.

Riley looked slightly at a loss and Xander decided it was time for a change of subject. “So, how’s the little woman? Sam, right?”

But Riley frowned. “Divorced.” Well, that change of subject went well, Xander thought. Then Riley smiled a little. “Weren’t you about to get married?”

Xander winced. “Yeah. Never did, though.”

Riley grinned in a way clearly meant to ease the moment. “So we’re both bachelors, right? As in, a couple days from now when you’re less…” he waved his hand at Xander’s bandaged self, “…we could go to a bar and get shitfaced and nobody is gonna rag on us about it.”

Xander felt absurdly like he had when Cordelia had agreed to date him. Riley Finn wanted to go drinking with him! He grinned back. “By Friday night I ought to be more or less in one piece.”

“It’s a date,” Riley said. After which, another of those awkward silences fell.

“Um, I think I’m okay to make it home now,” Xander finally said.

Riley stood. “Let me give you a ride.”

Xander nodded and started to get out from under the blankets, then froze. He felt his face turn red again. “Uh, you wouldn’t happen to have my pants around here someplace, would you?”

He must have been imagining the answering blush on Riley’s cheeks. “Yeah. I had to, uh, to get you bandaged right…I, uh…. Here.” He tossed Xander’s jeans over to him and Xander saw that they were slightly the worse for wear but still covered the important parts. Riley turned around and found something interesting to stare at on the blank wall while Xander dressed.

As it turned out, Riley’s depressing little apartment was less than a mile from the equally dismal place Xander’s firm had rented for him. As Xander got out of Riley’s truck—a Ford, of course—he turned back and gave a stupid little wave. “See you Friday,” he said.

“Friday,” Riley agreed.

Xander noticed that he didn’t drive away until Xander was safely in his apartment.

 

***

 

When Friday rolled around, Xander was distracted at work all day and nearly got brained by an I-beam. Shortly afterward, he told the crew they could go home early, which earned him a round of cheers. When he himself got home, he peeled off his dusty clothing, inspected the nicely healing wounds on his chest, and showered. Then he spent a ridiculously long time trying to decide what to wear. He finally settled on a pair of nice jeans and a greenish sweater that one of the girls from the office once told him brought out the color of his eyes.

Riley said he knew a decent place that was walking distance from both their apartments, and Xander had been agreeable. Especially after his parents’ death, drinking and driving had been a pretty big no with him. He’d long since accepted that his own lifespan was probably limited, but he didn’t really want to take innocent bystanders with him. He enjoyed the warm spring air as he walked. When he arrived at Lord’s, Riley was already there, beer in hand, looking slightly nervous for some reason. He waved at Xander when Xander came in.

“I took the liberty,” he said when Xander sat down, and he pointed at the second glass that was already waiting for Xander.

Xander picked it up and moved it in a mock toast. “Much obliged.” He glanced around the bar. It wasn’t very crowded. Most of the patrons looked to be of the middle-management type, a few still wearing suits. Several of them were watching a basketball game on the televisions overhead.

“If you don’t like it we can go someplace else,” Riley said. “But I thought we could actually hear ourselves talk here, and….”

“It’s fine. Perfect.” Xander took a long drink. “So. Want to tell me how you ended up selling cars in Kansas?”

Riley did. And they drank some more and ate burgers and Xander talked about how he’d ended up in Wichita too, and then they reminisced about old times, and Xander realized it was the first time he’d been able to speak honestly about his life since he’d resigned from the Scoobies. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed like this either. Riley seemed to be having a good time, too, and when he’d clap Xander on the arm now and then his hand was big and warm.

They didn’t leave until Lord’s closed for the night and they were kicked out. As they walked companionably together down the sidewalk, Xander realized that despite their mutual agreement to get wasted, he wasn’t drunk, wasn’t even buzzed, really, because they’d been so busy talking they hadn’t actually had that much beer.

When they came to the corner where Xander had to turn right and Riley had to turn left, they stopped and there was the first awkward silence of the night. “So, I guess I better turn in,” Riley said. “Gotta go sell some Explorers in the morning. Two more and I’ll get my picture taken as employee of the month.” He smiled and suddenly looked about eighteen years old.

Xander scuffed his shoe on the sidewalk. “Yeah. I should spend some time tomorrow looking at the plans. My boss had some questions about the west entrance.”

“Yeah, okay,” Riley said, and didn’t move.

A little breeze picked up, rifling Riley’s hair. Xander bit his lip. And then, in a moment of insanity he could only blame on his long and recent history of head injuries, he grabbed Riley’s shoulders, stepped in close, and gave him an eager, if slightly sloppy, kiss.

Riley froze, instantly becoming a large statue. And then, just as Xander was going to slink away, or maybe claim momentary demonic possession, Riley wrapped his arms around Xander’s waist and kissed back. It was strange to feel a man against him, bigger than him and with his face scratchy from five o’clock shadow. Strange but nice. Comfortable.

When they broke apart, they were both breathless. “We’re going to scandalize Wichita,” Riley said.

“Sorry,” Xander said and started to move away.

But Riley grabbed his arm and pulled him close again. “That was an observation, not a complaint.” His breaths puffed against Xander’s skin, somehow more intimate than the kiss they’d just shared.

“Have you, um, done this before?” Xander asked.

“What? Made out with someone on a street corner?”

“Made out with a guy, street corner or otherwise.”

Riley shook his head. “Nope. It’s kinda…good.” And he moved his hands down to squeeze Xander’s ass. “You?”

“I’ve made out with an assortment of demons and demon-like girls, but never a guy. And I agree. It is kinda good.” His movements mimicked Riley’s. Riley had a really muscular ass and it felt awfully nice under Xander’s palms.

“I don’t want you to think I’m easy or anything,” Riley breathed into Xander’s ear. “But maybe are you in the mood for a little more experimenting tonight?”

Xander chuckled. “I’m not easy either. But that sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in years.”

They both turned left and walked towards Riley’s place, shoulders bumping together as they went. And then one of them started running and the other ran, too, and they raced each other down the sidewalks of Wichita, goofy grins plastered across both of their faces.

 

_\---fin---_

 

 

[Click here for the sequel, _Don't_ _Call It Love_](http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=whichclothes&keyword=Don%27t%20Call%20It%20Love&filter=all)


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